A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives is designed to provide the long-awaited legislative “fix” to counter the effects of the 2009 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar, which held that Native American tribes must show they were “under federal jurisdiction” as of 1934 to take land into trust for casinos or other purposes.
The bill, H.R. 4352, would ensure that all federally recognized tribes, regardless of the date of federal recognition, can restore their homelands through the land-into-trust process.
The Carcieri decision has prevented many tribes from seeking land be placed under trust.
“Placing land into trust is vital for tribal sovereignty and self-determination, and we must remember that most of the land sought to be placed in trust is actually historic land, aboriginal land of the tribes themselves,” said Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-New Mexico), at the House Subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples of the United States.
“They are simply seeking to reacquire it and to have the same trust protections placed on that land as their other land,” said Fernandez.
